Here I present a programmable controller to control two independent functions simultaneously. The controller uses two tank tracks with pins on them to select between neutral, forward and reverse to control a small crane. The timing of the switching can be controlled by the placement of the pins on each track in effect allowing you to program the timing sequence. The example crane can follow any sequence such as hook up, rotate clockwise, hook down, hook up, rotate anti-clockwise etc. The tracks have 40 segments each to allow up to 40 different timing options, however these can be extended as required.

 

Nice !

Love the idea. You may want to consider replacing tracks with plates with racks on them to get more possible "inputs", like here:

 

Love it! The principle kinda reminds me of this:

 

The nice thing about using a belt rather than a plate for the sequence is that the sequence can loop. Though I guess it would be possible to implement a 'rewind' mechanism.

On 5/6/2020 at 12:51 AM, Sariel said:

Love the idea. You may want to consider replacing tracks with plates with racks on them to get more possible "inputs", like here:

Hi Sariel, Wow that drummer is awesome. 10x better than my crane LOL. I might use some of these ideas! Thanks so much,

 

 

 

 

On 5/6/2020 at 5:20 AM, suffocation said:

Love it! The principle kinda reminds me of this:

 

Hi suffocation,.. now that's vintage lego technic. Interesting to see this idea has been around for a long time. Thanks for sharing this link - appreciate it.

 

On 5/7/2020 at 9:04 PM, TechnicBrickPower said:

On 5/6/2020 at 5:31 AM, pleegwat said:

The nice thing about using a belt rather than a plate for the sequence is that the sequence can loop. Though I guess it would be possible to implement a 'rewind' mechanism.

Hi pleegwat. I was thinking about your idea - you could have the plate hit a limit switch which reverses the mechanism and it plays the sequence in reverse. If you have this at both ends you can have the plate "loop" back and forth.